News In Brief

ByRobert Kilborn and Lance CardenDecember 17, 1999

You'll find Des Moines in south-central Iowa, but with a population of about 190,000 folks you won't find it anywhere near the top of the list of the US's largest metropolitan areas. Still, there is a category in which the city is No. 1: the per-capita consumption of Jell-O, dethroning last year's champion, Salt Lake City. And the designation makes residents proud. Said Mayor Preston Daniels: "Now that we're on top, we intend to stay there." Researchers for Kraft Foods, which owns the brand, arrived at the finding by comparing sales and populations.

Perhaps you recall an item in this space Dec. 1 about two Japanese seeking a patent for curry, angering - among others - the government of India. They can cool off now. It turns out the application was only for an additive developed by multinational House Foods Corp., which does sell curry, but a milder version than that used by hundreds of millions of South Asians.

The Directors Guild of America said this week it will rename the prestigious D.W. Griffith Award, its highest honor. Griffith, who was possibly the most influential American in the development of motion pictures, directed more than 450 films, including the epic "Birth of a Nation." While that 1915 film is regarded by many historians as the greatest of the silent era in part for its astounding re-creations of Civil War battles, it has been widely criticized for glorifying the Ku Klux Klan and offering degrading images of black Americans. The last 10 winners of D.W. Griffith Awards and the years in which they were honored: